Social Psychological Theories on Social Inequalities

Abstract

Although social psychology focuses on the relationships between individuals and their social environments, it has often failed to fully incorporate actors' social structural positions (e.g., their location in the social hierarchies of race, gender, socioeconomic status, or sexual identity). In this paper we analyze patterns in social psychology's approach to social inequalities, which we argue has been characterized by neglect, a focus on difference rather than on similarity, a tendency toward essentialism, and a lack of attention to social context and power. We then focus in turn on the three major theoretical traditions in sociological social psychology-social exchange, social cognition, and symbolic interaction-and summarize how each has (or has not) addressed the topic of inequality. We conclude by presenting four directions for future research that we believe will move social psychology toward a clearer understanding of social inequalities. Sociological social psychological theory has developed along multiple lines throughout the twentieth century. Social cognition has mapped the structures and processes of human thought. Social exchange theory has examined the conditions under which interaction occurs and individual choices are made. Symbolic interactionism has addressed the symbolic structure of social life: how meaning is created and communicated, how self and identity develop. Although these trajectories have been productive, each has developed largely independently of the others and, to some extent, of sociological theories and concerns, a point House (1977) raised more than 20 years ago. Despite House's warning, however, this lack of theoretical cross-fertilization has continued and, we argue, has impeded the resulting generation of knowledge. Each theory contains an implicit critique of other approaches; yet because these perspectives are independent, theorists have not had to respond to these critiques. Moreover, because of the relative dissociation of social psychology from